Ka-Blooming hell

New ideas and fresh thinking should always be championed - especially in the sometimes staid and predictable world of smartphone gaming. Original games push the medium forward, giving developers new scope to expand their own creations.Ka-Bloom certainly fits into that category, and while it's a little rough around the edges it still offers a puzzling experience the likes of which you won't find anywhere else on the App Store.Flower power

The game is all about bringing life and light to the universe. It's your job to feed Floret, a cute little flower creature that sits in the centre of every level. Floret is asleep as you begin, surrounded by a variety of coins and gems.

You link these tokens together in chains of three by sliding your finger over them, double-tap on Floret to wake him up, and then tap on the nearest chain to start gobbling. The more blue gems Floret eats the bigger his aura gets, and once it's reached a certain size you've completed the level.

While you can only have three chains on the go at once, you can 'hot-chain' your linked gems, tying them to another chain to create a super-chain. This longer chain frees up a slot so that you can start building more chains and try to link them in too, but any un-linked morsels that hit the blue aura disappear.Gem not matching

It's entirely possible to finish a level collecting fewer than half the gems available, and as the game progresses new types of foodstuff that change the way Floret and his aura behave are introduced, forcing you to think in new ways if you want to get the best scores.Ka-Bloom is a intriguing, exciting, and sometimes frustrating puzzle game. Most of the time it feels fresh and different, but occasionally it lapses into the esoteric and you're left scratching your head as to what to do next.

Gorgeous presentation and new ways of playing are always welcome, but Ka-Bloom's big ideas exceed its reach. It's still fun, still exciting, and still deserves to be championed, but a few tweaks here and there wouldn't go amiss.